Not, a Flying Saucer

June 24^th 2011 marked the 64^th anniversary of UFOs.

The first unidentified flying objects were first reported in 1947 by an amateur pilot named Kenneth Arnold.

He reported seeing nine objects flying about 20 miles away from him. He estimated their speed as being somewhere in the region of 1,700 miles per hour. That was three times faster than any plane at that time.

He said these objects could lift or swerve to avoid objects.

He described these objects as being flat, when viewed from the side and crescent shaped when viewed from above.

He had seen these objects whilst flying and reported his sighting as soon as he landed at Yakima, Washington.

A reporter, Bill Bequette of the United Press, took an interest in Arnold’s statement and soon the news was nation wide.

However, Bill had misinterpreted Arnold’s statement, saying that Arnold had in fact seen flying objects that were shaped like saucers.

Within days, hundreds of people had claimed that they had seen the same thing as Arnold, flying saucers.

This “error” in the press, led to a worldwide belief by many that flying saucers existed. Soon this phenomenon led to them being portrayed in books and movies.

Even though the papers reported the sightings incorrectly, officials believed that Arnold did see something that day.

They do not though; think it was flying saucers or any other shaped alien craft.

It has been suggested that it could have been a meteor that broke up in the atmosphere. However, this would not explain how the objects seemed to swerve to avoid obstructions.

A more feasible suggestion is that he misjudged the distance he was from the objects. That would make the objects a lot smaller and not traveling any where near as fast. The suggestion is that he saw Pelicans flying in formation.

No matter what shape he saw or what it was, Kenneth Arnold certainly started a lasting global fascination of flying saucers and UFOs.